


All Bound

by emeraldpalace



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Other, Reincarnation, endgame spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-03-05
Packaged: 2018-09-27 11:56:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10019768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emeraldpalace/pseuds/emeraldpalace
Summary: It’s interesting how it takes being assaulted with a knife to remember your past life.Or, Noctis and his friends in a world that has long forgotten them.





	1. Genesis

Noctis, all things considered, is a fairly normal person.

He has just started going to university, has a part-time job at a camera store, shares an apartment with his two childhood friends and likes playing video games in his free time.

He knows he could go out more, be more sociable and less awkward. Then again, most people feel that way compared to the charismatic butterflies that are Luna and Gladio, so really, Noctis is a completely average, unremarkable, definitely not particularly special, 19-year-old student.

Which is why he doesn’t understand why the gods, if they do exist, seem to have it out for him on this particular September day.

First, he somehow overslept his alarm, and only got up in time because Gladio noticed his absence on his way out for his morning run. Then, he burned his tongue on the coffee he got from his favourite coffee shop, which would have been okay, because Ignis still was the only one who could make him enjoy coffee, if it wasn’t for the blond guy that ran into him on campus and made him spill the scorching beverage over his hand and parts of his jacket. The guy apologised in a hurry, and Noctis was- annoyed, sure, but these things happened, so he really tried not to dwell on it.

The blond turned out to be part of his business economics class later on, and even walked up to him afterwards to apologise again and Noctis did feel guilty about brushing him off with a “Yeah it’s fine” but he couldn’t afford to be late to his job again or Crowe would actually murder him this time.

Crowe didn’t murder him, but he was still late because of a road being blocked off due to an accident and he got a half-our lecture and is on cleaning duty for the rest of the month, and by evening at the end of his shift Noctis just wants to get to his apartment and sleep as soon as possible but _no_ , on top of it all, some jerk just _has_ to stop him as he’s taking a shortcut through a small alley on his way home.

Those kinds of thugs are fairly rare in this part of town and the guy looks meek and even stutters as he demands all of Noctis’ money, so he thinks he can probably act confident and just walk away.

He doesn’t expect the other to pull a knife on him.

Noctis, being the average person he is, isn’t particularly violent or confrontational but at this point he’s too tired and beyond irritated to think clearly and maybe just give the guy some money rather than thinking he can take him down easily with his self-defense training.

Turns out the assailant is quicker than Noctis first assumed, because he manages to take him off-guard and land both a slash and a push back, which makes Noctis stumble backwards with a pained hiss.

He presses a hand to his chest and tries to push himself back up, when suddenly he hears sirens in the distance. The attacker stiffs and looks with panicked eyes from side to side before running off in the opposite direction down the alley.

For a moment Noctis feels genuinely relieved, when he notices a warm stickiness on his hands and finds that he’s bleeding _a lot_ through his shirt and onto his hand. A new kind of fear settles in and he hastily fishes for the phone in his pocket, wincing at the pain of moving his arm. His first instinct is to call Luna, or Gladio, or his dad, but then he thinks that this is probably beyond basic first aid knowledge and manages to type in the emergency phone number after several blood-smeared attempts.

He manages to tell them his name and location and the fact that he’s be stabbed, as well as a brief description of the attacker and even stays awake until the ambulance arrives, but passes out on his way to the hospital.

 

* * *

 

_He would have been lying if he’d said he wasn’t scared._

_But as he felt the ring’s magic flow through him stronger than ever before, and his father’s watchful eye on him, he felt no doubt as he called to the Kings of Lucis._

_The armiger weapons appeared in a circle before him, and soon after the armoured forms of their wielders followed, magic sparking around them in its familiar blue glow._

_Then they took their weapons in hand and the first among them rose right in front of him._

_The pain he felt at the first stab was excruciating, beyond anything he felt before, made worse by the strain of holding onto his blade as his hand shook with the powerful ancient magic that flowed into the ring. He had no time to recover as one by one, the Lucii pierced their weapons through him, each stab more painful than the last. His insides churned, his skin burned and as the largest and oldest armour impaled him, his grip finally slipped from the blade his father had given him._

_He knew he was still there, observing him, even as he could only see the back of his robes from the corner of his eye, hesitating._

_He also knew that neither of them can truly afford to do so, and saw the faces of his friends and those that sacrificed themselves for him, reaffirming the truth that_ that _is what he had been fighting for all this time._

_He raised his sword yet again, and handed it to his dad’s spectre._

_"Dad… Trust in me…”_

_Then, another armour appeared before him, one he knew he had never actually seen before, but there was a comforting crackling in the magic, and he had no doubt whatsoever that it was his father, and they were both determined to end this once and for all._

_He braced himself for the final stab, felt the rush of air at the movement when-_

Noctis wakes up with a jolt, immediately wincing at the pain in his chest area, yet he’s surprised to find himself wearing a hospital gown in a sterile white room, his legs covered by equally white sheets.

“Noct!”, a familiar voice calls him.

He turns to his side and sees his father looking at him in worry.

“Dad?”

“Are you feeling alright? What’s the matter, son?”

‘ _He looks young_ ’, is the first thing that comes to his mind, which he realizes is a weird thought to have since his dad usually looks no older or younger than his actual age.

“No, it’s- it’s nothing, really I just-”, he struggles to reorient himself as the images from the dream still swim around his head, especially the fact that his father somehow _had_ to kill him with a _sword_ of all things- “I just had a bad dream, that’s all.”

Regis frowns at him slight, and Noctis himself feels that he’s not really telling the truth, but thankfully his father doesn’t mention it.

“That’s good then”, he says with a sigh and leans back in his chair. “And otherwise? How are you feeling?”

Like on command, Noctis then feels the tightness around his chest, to the point where it’s somewhat painful. “It hurts kinda”, he says as he peeks under the gown collar to see his midsection wrapped around in bandages, “but it’s not too bad.”

Regis nods. “Good. The doctor said you were lucky that the injury wasn’t to deep, but I’d rather make sure.”

“Of course”, Noctis replies and looks at his surroundings only to notice that it’s pitch black outside and the clock on the opposite wall reads almost midnight.

“What are you even doing here at this hour?”, he asks.

“My boy, you can’t expect me to just sit at home when you are hospitalized after someone attacked you on the street”, his father says calmly but with a fondness Noctis recognizes very well from his childhood. He feels slightly guilty at keeping his dad from his work and his much deserved sleep, but Regis just keeps smiling at him softly.

“Luna and Gladiolus were here as well, but the doctor allowed only family members to stay with you.”

Noctis nods in understanding.

“Are you sure you are okay though?”, his dad speaks up again, “Should I call someone to check up on you?”

“Dad, no, I told you I’m fine!”, he protests. “I’m just a bit tired, is all.”

“Of course, son. But if you need something-”

“I’ll figure it out. Trust me”, he says with a smile.

His father hesitates for a moment. “...If you say so. I suppose you should get some rest now first and foremost”, he relents.

"You should go home and sleep too, y’know.”

“I’m sure the nurses wouldn’t mind if I stayed-”

“ _I_ would mind if you stayed”, Noctis insists. “Really, I won’t go anywhere, promise.”

Regis looks at him for a second, and stands up with sigh. “Alright then. But I will be back in the morning as soon as I can, you hear?”

“Of course”, Noctis says and comically rolls his eyes. Regis chuckles quietly and gives him a gentle pat on the shoulder before walking towards the door.

He opens to door to the hallway outside and turns around one final time to his son.

“Good night, Noct.”

“Good night, dad.”

With that, his father turns off the lights of the hospital room and closes the door behind him.

Noctis tries to fall asleep after that, he really does. But even as he feels exhaustion wash over him, the gauze around his chest makes lying down in all positions uncomfortable and the images from his dream still keep swimming around his head.

He doesn’t get dreams often, and when he does, they’re mostly everyday occurrences, like taking out the trash and then hanging out with his friends and then seeing something weird, not some sort of... fantasy adventure. He hasn’t dreamed of being a prince that saves me world since he was a child.

Wait, no, he was a _king_ in the dream. He doesn’t know why he knows that with such a clarity and conviction but he does. The dream felt unnaturally real to him, now that he thinks about it. He doesn’t know if it’s just the tightness around his chest, but he somehow still remembers the way those different weapons pierced through him, hot, searing and vivid, even though he knew that he should have died right away. But he had a duty to fulfill, even if it meant he had to get stabbed by his own father…

He doesn’t notice the tears building up in his eyes until one of them rolls down the bridge of his nose and onto his other cheek.

“What the hell…?”, he murmurs as he wipes at his eyes. That’s just beyond _weird_. And yet, somehow, Noctis still feels a lingering sadness and knows that there must be a reason for it, but the fact that he doesn’t know the reason itself just makes him uncomfortable. It couldn’t be just the dream, right?

Maybe he’s just still in shock from the attack, or something. He knows he’s already spent too much time thinking about it already when he sees that the clock reads almost 2 a.m., and decides to settle for that explanation and try and get some sleep. He lies down in a somewhat comfortable position and hopes he won’t get any other surreal fantastical dreams.

 

* * *

 

“ _Dad, look! I caught one!_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this is going to be a thing, apparently???????????? i honestly just wrote this on a whim, which is highly unusual for me tbh
> 
> The beginning will probably be slow but I expect then to mainly focus on specific characters within chapters, but posting them as one shots in a collection didn't really feel right since they're Really closely connected but eh let's see how it goes ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ though i'm pretty nervous since this is my first multi-chaptered fic in years,,,,,,
> 
> follow me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/nyaneyan) pleeza, i wanna talk to more people, especially about ffxv


	2. Case of Noctis I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noctis gets released from the hospital, receives too much attention and makes a friend, maybe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you have no idea how genuinely proud i am for actually writing a second chapter and not letting the fic die miserably
> 
> also for those that read the first chapter, i changed the description, title of the chap and two teeny tiny lines, in case you noticed or care,,,

_ “Dad, look! I caught one!”, he said proudly, showing off the fish on the hook to his father. _

_ “That’s amazing, Noct! I still can’t reel a single one in…” _

_ “You have to move it around more! Here, let me show you.” He placed his hands on his father’s much larger, much rougher ones and moved the rod in what he thought was a way befitting experts. _

_ “See? Now you try!” _

_ “Alright then…” His dad’s rod flailed around weakly. _

_ “No, you’ve got it all wrong! Look, you have to-” _

_ A cough behind the pair interrupted the young prince. The king turned around to one of his guards. “Yes, Felicia?” _

_ “I apologize, Your Majesty,” she said with a bow, and Noct could feel his expression dropping, “but there was an urgent call from Sir Drautos concerning developments at our outermost borders…” _

_ “I see,” he said and looked at his watch. “Well, it’s about time we go back to Insomnia anyway.” _

_ Noctis whined. “Can’t we stay just a bit longer? Pleeeaaase?” _

_ Regis chuckled and ruffled his son’s hair, a sad smile on his face. “I’m sorry, Noct. We’ll stay for longer next time, alright?” _

_ “Promise?” _

_ He nodded with the severity of a king and held out his hand to the young boy. “Pinky promise.” _

_ Still pouting, Noctis hooked his pinky with his father’s. “Pinky promise.” _

_ Regis gave his son’s hair another fond ruffle. “That’s my boy. Now then,” he said, and Felicia and another guard moved forward to take the fishing equipment as another two opened the doors to the Regalia in the driver’s and passenger’s seat, respectively. Inside, Noctis glared at the black SUV in front of them like it was personally responsible for ruining the time he spent with his dad.   _

The sound of car door snapping shut is the last thing Noctis hears before he wakes up.

He notices he’s still in the hospital room and immediately winces and turns away at the bright sunlight streaming through the window and right onto his face.

After a few minutes of trying, and failing, to go back to sleep, he sits up in the bed just as there’s a knock on the door and a nurse enters the room. Seeing he’s awake, she immediately ushers him to the doctor who begins examining him, just to make sure there was nothing else that needed treatment.

The examination passes in a blur, fogged up by the soreness in his muscles and his still half-awake state, made worse as he gets caught up in the memory of his dream.

So he was fishing with his dad as a kid. Nothing special, really, because they did that a lot when Noctis was younger, but these other people were there as well and his father was a king-

A cold realisation washes over him.

The doctor halts as he fastens the blood pressure cuff around his arm.

“I apologize, is it too tight?”

Noctis nods per instinct. “Uh, yeah.”

The doctor loosens the cuff, even if there is actually no need for it, and Noctis tries to will his sudden bout of anxiety down.  _ It’s dumb _ , he thinks, because really, just because he was king in one dream and prince in the other doesn’t mean that his father died at some point between the two occurrences. Hell, the dreams don’t have to be related at all, right?

Except then he remembers his father’s smokey figure at his side on the throne, and he doesn’t feel any better as much as he knows that he shouldn’t read too much into it.

The doctor finishes up his tests and tells him that all is fine, but that he should rest for a while and come back in a week to get the stitches removed. Noctis thanks him and leaves to go back and get his belongings when he sees Gladio and Luna sitting in chairs right in front of his room.

They immediately shoot up and all but run to his side with worried looks.

“Noct! You okay to be walking around?”

“Are you hurt? Do you need any help?”

Gladio puts a hand to his shoulder and Luna hooks her arm around his as if he’s about to fall over right then and there. He wiggles out of their holds and groans. “Guys, stop, I’m  _ fine _ .”

“Are you sure?” Luna asks and gives him a thorough once-over.

“Yes, I’m sure,” he replies, “The doctor said I just have to rest for a few days and I’ll be good as new.”

“ _ Really _ ,” he adds at his friends’ doubtful looks.

Gladio clicks his tongue and grumbles “Fine.”

Noctis raises an eyebrow. “What’s got you so pissed?”

“I don’t know, maybe the fact that some asshole attacked you on the street?”, he growls, “I swear if I ever see that fucker I will make him pay for it-”

“Now now,” Luna interrupts him. “We don’t want you to end up where he is. We’ve got Nyx for that.”

“So the police caught him?”, Noctis asks.

“Yeah,” Gladio replies. “Nyx said they haven’t found out who the guy is yet, but that’s probably not going to take that long.”

“Uh huh.” Noctis is relieved that his attacker was caught, obviously, but he isn’t sure what to feel beyond that, strangely enough.

“You should know,” Luna speaks up again with a sympathetic smile, “the incident has been all over the news this morning.”

Noctis pulls a face.

“Come on now,” Gladio says, patting his shoulder with less force than he usually would. “Who knows, maybe the exposure will do you some good.”

Noctis frowns even more. “I don’t think so.”

Gladio grins. “Wuss.”

Noctis huffs, and decides to change the topic. “By the way, have you seen my dad? Today, I mean.”

Luna looks at him quizzically. “I’m afraid not. Why?”

“No reason,” he lies and pretends he doesn’t feel his stomach drop ever so slightly. “Anyway, I should probably get changed, or something.”

“Right!”, Luna exclaims and reaches into her handbag. “I imagined you might want a fresh pair of clothes”, she says as she hands him the folded fabrics with a smile.

Noctis takes them with a grateful nod, but frowns as he remembers the fate of his clothes from yesterday. “...I actually liked that shirt.”

Gladio snorts. “Wow, let me guess, now you only have ninety-nine black shirts instead of a hundred?”

“Hey, I don’t have that many of them.”

Luna does an awful job of hiding her laughter behind her hand.

Noctis rolls his eyes, mumbles “some friends you are…” and ducks into the hospital room.

Inside, he’s relieved to find both his bag and his phone lying on the bedside table he hadn’t noticed when he first woke up. He checks his messages; most of them are from friends asking whether he’s alright and/or wishing him a swift recovery. One of them is from his father, apologizing profusely for not being able to come after all, but there was a sudden meeting at work, however Noctis should not hesitate at all to call him should he need something, along with wishes to get better soon.

Sighing with relief, if a bit of disappointment, he sends back a text telling him not to worry about it, that the doctor said he’ll be fine anyway, and gets changed.

At home, Noctis somewhat regrets telling his roommates that he should take it easy for a while. Luna, in her soon-to-be professional medical opinion, insists that he take off three days instead of the two he wants to, and even Gladio, the biggest stickler for their house rules and schedules, offers to cook and take out the trash for him, even when Noctis tells him that he’s got stitches, not a broken arm. Sure, the trash bag is rather heavy, and his muscles are unnaturally sore for an hour afterwards but he hates feeling guilty for causing his friends trouble, so he bears with it for the first day.

He feels fine on the second day, and by the third he actually catches himself wanting to go back to classes and work as soon as possible. Of course, he regrets that thought the next morning, but he still heaves himself out of bed and while getting ready, he notices that he hasn’t actually had any other weird dreams over the course of his recovery. Relieved that it was probably just a weird aftereffect of the shock, or the anaesthetics, or something, he makes his way over to  _ Highwind’s _ .

“Look who’s not dead!” is the first thing Noctis hears as he enters the coffee shop, and he immediately feels self-conscious at the looks the few other patrons give him.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence”, he replies dryly to the owner.

“Hey, it’s a compliment,” Aranea tells him over her shoulder. “Specs here acted like you actually died when he first heard the news.”

“I can assure you, I did not,” the man himself says as he leaves the storage room and walks up behind the counter.

“Right, so the fifteen messages I got were from some other Ignis I know.”

The older man pushes up his glasses. “It was ten, not fifteen. Besides, you cannot fault me for being worried at an incident like that.”

“Nah, I get it. I appreciate it, but I’m fine now.”

Ignis gives him a long look, but doesn’t argue. “If you say so. Will it be the usual then?”

“You know it.”

Ulwaat berry latte in hand, Noctis goes through his classes with less comments and questions than he expected, along with some kind offers to send him notes from the lessons he missed, which he appreciates much more than any concern for his health.

After that he goes to work and even arrives there on time, as commented on by Crowe.

“You know, you can take it easy for a while, me and Pelna can take of the heavy lifting and stuff.”

“Does that mean I don’t have to clean the shop anymore?”

She flicks his upper arm with surprising force and Noctis winces. “Don’t get cheeky on me, kid. You’re telling me you got yourself stabbed just so you could get out of cleaning duty?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I did.” He rolls his eyes. “I can’t believe you saw through my plan.”

Crowe laughs. “Get to work, evil genius,” she says and walks upstairs to the storage room.

There’s not much work to do for Noctis though, since the little camera shop is rarely busy on workdays in the afternoon, and the only people that have come so far were a group of teenagers that were just looking around and an older woman who took one look inside, scoffed and left without so much as acknowledging Noctis’ presence.

He’s halfway done skimming through a newspaper article about his very own attack when the front door bell rings for the first time in over half an hour, and he’s actually grateful for the distraction.

“Welcome-”

“Oh, it’s you!”

Noctis stiffs as the customer walks right over to him. At first he thinks it might be another fellow student recognizing him from the news, but then there’s something eerily familiar about the guy’s blond hair and freckled face…

“Hey, I’m still sorry about spilling coffee on you & stuff, and I kinda wanna make it up to you? I’m Prompto, by the way.”

Noctis takes the hand offered to him, still surprised at the apology. “Noctis. But everyone calls me Noct.”

Then the weight of Prompto’s words sinks in and he shakes his head. “No but, I told you it’s fine, you didn’t have to stalk me all the way to work to say you’re sorry.”

“W-What, no-” Prompto all but chokes out. “I wasn’t stalking you, I swear! I was just looking for a new camera and here you were, so I just thought I’d apologize again because I really feel bad, I wasn’t following you or anything-”

Noctis immediately feels bad for the comment but he can’t help but smile out of sympathy.

“Wait, no, stop right there- Sorry, it was a joke, I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Oh.” Prompto says, rubbing his neck self-consciously.

“Well, uh, that was awkward.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Noctis tells him with a smile. “And like, don’t worry about the coffee thing either. Wasn’t the worst thing that happened to me that day.”

At Prompto’s questioning eyes, he just shuffles the newspaper article towards the blond, who reads “‘ _ Attacker on Insomnia U student of Niflheimian descent _ ’... Oh.” He looks back up to Noctis. “Shit, that was you?”

“Yep. See, now you probably feel way better about yourself.”

Prompto breaks out in laughter at that. “Okay, yeah, you have a point, at least I’m not  _ that _ guy.”

Noctis notices then that Prompto speaks with a slight accent, and wonders where he might be from.

“Hey, uh, this might sound weird,” Prompto suddenly speaks up, “but do you want to get some coffee anyway? Or just, hang out or something?”

“Uh,” the question takes Noctis off-guard. “Yeah, sure? When though?”

“Uhm, are you free tomorrow after business economics?”

Noctis quickly checks his inner schedule and nods. “Yeah, I am.”

“Great!” Prompto smiles at him and it’s disarmingly bright and genuine. “I’ll see ya tomorrow then!”

“Yeah, see you.”

With that, Prompto all but skips back outside. Noctis watches him out of curiosity and sees the blond turn and walk left, only to freeze in front of the display, shock on his face. Then he hides his face in his hands and groans, maybe, before walking away faster, his cheeks visibly red even at a distance.

In a much better mood than before, Noctis goes back to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> would anyone believe me if i said i genuinely did not plan on making the promptis scene so romantic
> 
> also i decided i will follow the ffxv team's example and post titbits of this au at the end of each chapter because i can't work them into the story, at least not at this point, or they're more like fun facts that i personally like  
> Starring Today: the most in-canon underappreciated character, Nyx:  
> -he's also childhood friends with noctis since they had fencing classes together. he's also the one who introduced noct to crowe when he was looking for a job, so thank you for being my personal plot device my dude


End file.
